In cases where you are aware of irregular symptoms on your vehicle, you are right to be intrigued, because a car represents a huge annual budget and unforeseen malfunctions don’t reduce the bill. So what if you think that you have a leaking injector on your Opel Zafira 3? You probably figured it out thanks to black/oily drips along your engine unit, or a troubled idle, or unconventional black smoke. These three symptoms are the main indicators of a leaking injector. As this problem can bring about more significant engine complications on your car, we thought we would compose this article to help you validate the failure of a leaking injector and deal with it correctly. To do this, we will initially look into the case of gasoline injectors and then at those of diesel injectors Opel Zafira 3.

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Leaking injector on my petrol Opel Zafira 3

It is essential to know that the injectors on petrol and diesel engines are different, actually, the difference in combustion between these two types of engines makes the injection different. The essential difference lies in the pressure undergone by the injectors, on a petrol engine it will vary between 3.5 bars for indirect injection and 120 bars for indirect injection.

Leaking injector on a petrol Opel Zafira 3: The different leaks

It should be known that injector leaks on a Opel Zafira 3 equipped with a petrol engine are pretty rare. This is because of the much lower pressure in the petrol intake systems. Nevertheless, there are two types of leaks:

  • Leakage from the top of the injector:
    It is possible that you have a leak from the top of the injector, this is the part that is connected to the fuel rail, an O-ring will be involved in this.
  • Leak injector of the lower part:
    At last, you may encounter a leak coming from the lower portion of the injector of your car, this one will come from the junction with the engine and not with the rail as seen before.

Leaking injector on my diesel Opel Zafira 3

Unlike petrol engines, which have spark combustion, diesel engines run on compression. This combustion system generates very high pressure in the engine, as do the injectors. On these models, the pressure is more than 10 times higher than on the direct injection of car petrol engines, reaching 1800 to 2000 bars.

Leaking injector on diesel Opel Zafira 3: The different leaks

In the case of leaking diesel injectors on your Opel Zafira 3, there are three different types of leaks:

  • Leakage from the injector inlet:
    In this case, it is an inlet pipe that will deform along with time, generally the leak will be at the clamping point.
  • Injector return leakage:
    As its name implies, this leakage relates to the management of the fuel return in the injector, this time the injector that leaks on your Opel Zafira 3 will be brought on by an O-ring or its plastic tip that leaks.
  • Injector base leak:
    This injection leak is one of the most bothersome, it is the junction between the engine and the injector nose that leaks at a copper seal, you should experience an air noise and a compression loss.
  • If after examining you have oil leaking but it does not come from your injectors, we suggest you to read this article on the presence of oil leaking on your Opel Zafira 3.

Leaking injector on my Opel Zafira 3, how to fix the leak

And to finish, we’re going to look into how to fix a leaking injector on your car. Very often a leak is linked, as we have seen sooner, to a worn seal due to the pressures suffered. But think that the pressure in the circuit is enormous, especially on diesel engines. So you will have to take some safety measures:

  • Lower the pressure before any work is done…
  • Masking you to avoid the risk of fuel spillage
  • NEVER work on a running diesel engine injector.

Relating to the repair part of your leak, it will regularly be restricted to swapping the seals that have failed:

  • Locate the source of the leak
  • Dismantle the injector in question
  • Change the corresponding seal kit
  • Reassemble the assembly and tighten with a torque wrench in respect with the manufacturer’s standards.

In all situations, these interventions are not specifically difficult, but if you have the slightest hesitation in the treatment of your injector that leaks on your Opel Zafira 3, we suggest you to get closer to your auto technician to avoid any bad manipulation that could significantly harm the condition of your Opel Zafira 3.

If you want more guides on the Opel Zafira 3, go to our Opel Zafira 3 category.